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Birmingham Bus routes 2
Birmingham bus routes 2 & 3 are a pair of services running from the city centre serving Yardley Wood Road and beyond in the south of the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Both services are operated by National Express West Midlands and run to a co-ordinated 20 minute frequency Mon-Sat daytimes thus providing a 10 minute headway (15 mins eves and Sun) on the shared section of route through Wake Green and Billesley (both services also run together through Sparkbrook sharing the Statford Road with the likes of services 6 and 37). Service 2 then runs via Yardley Wood (garage), Warstock and Solihul Lodge to the Maypole, whilst service 3 runs to Yardley Wood. NXWM service 3 to Shirley Green The services are mostly commonly operated by double-decker Dennis Trident 2 buses, with some journeys, particularly in the evenings, operated by single-decker Scania Omnilink buses. The routes are operated by NXWMs Yardley Wood garage. History of service 2 Service 2 originally ran as Birmingham City Transport service 24 to Warstock and, with what is now the shortened 2E evening working, is unchanged since before the second world war (other than the July 2018 route change in Sparkbrook). No changes to service 24 were made by WMPTE. In October 1987 West Midlands Travel renumbered the route as service 2 before facing competition from Your Bus service 2Y in 1992. WMT initially responded by operating Metrorider minibuses at an increased frequency. Although Your Bus were soon taken over, WMT continued operating the 2Y as the service additionally ran through to the Maypole via the end of Yardley Wood Road and Maypole Lane. Originally, and under the later Travel Your Bus branding, these didn't serve Warstock, however for a while in the mid 1990s they were diverted via Greenford Road. TWM service 2 In 2000 the 2Y service was discontinued, however by then all Mon-Sat daytime journeys of service 2 had adopted the Maypole connection by running beyond the Warstock terminus via Gorleston Road and the middle section of Prince of Wales Lane back to Yardley Wood Road and hence the 2Y route to the Maypole. Sunday daytime services also started serving the Maypole from January 2009. In July 2018 the route joined service 3 in serving Stoney Lane rather than Sparkhill and Showell Green Lane. The original use of route number 2 was an inter suburban service which at the conclusion of the Birmingham City Transport era was running from the QE Hospital to Kings Heath (later Weoley Castle to Kings Heath under WMPTE). This use of the route number lasted 8 months into the degregulated era during which time the service was extended to Yardley Wood (therefore the first time a service 2 served Yardley Wood bus garage it wasn't todays version!). History of service 3 Service 3 has its origins in Birmingham City Transport service 13A which by the 1950s ran on the current 3 route as far as the School Road / Ravenshill Road junction (original service 13 pre-dated service 24 and ran down Yardley Wood Road as far as Haunch Lane until eventually being phased out). In 1964 the 13A was renumbered 13. A couple of years later every alternate working started running along Priory Road as far as Slade Lane. The use of an unrelated route number for the Priory Road variants simply reflected BCTs policy of using the next available service number which at that time was service 38. It was also around this time that rear engined front entrance buses were first used on the Yardley Wood Road routes. The 13 and 38 remained unchanged throughout the WMPTE operated years. WMPTE service 13 at terminus In October 1987 West Midlands Travel renumbered service 38 to service 12, then in 1989 made the logical decision to combine the two routes by extending from the 13 terminus down Ravenshill Road and hence Priory Road to the 12 terminus. The new service adopted the latter number with Mon-Sat daytime services additionally extended to Shirley Station from June 2000. In October 2009, following an unsuccessful trial of linking The Baldwin with Shirley Station, all daytime services were extended to the end of Haslucks Green Road (so as to maintain a link between Yardley Wood and Shirley following the withdrawal of service 69). This then led to further extensions just three months later as newly renumbered service 3 took over withdrawn routes along Streetsbrook Road to Solihull and Shirley Rd/Lakey La/Gospel La/Pool Farm Rd/Shirley Rd to Acocks Green (every other journey as service 3A). In October 2011 the Solihull route was withdrawn and the Acocks Green route renumbered to service 3. April 2014 saw the withdrawal of the Acocks Green link with the route instead serving the full length of Shirley 'High Street' (Stratford Road) to terminate at the Green Business Park. On Sundays daytime journeys continued to terminate at the northern end of Shirley at the junction of Haslucks Green Road and Stratford Road. A final change on 23rd April 2016 saw the route revert to its 1990s form, with all journeys terminating at Priory Road/Slade Lane. The original use of route number 3 in Birmingham was for the City to Ridgacre Lane via Harborne service, which today runs (in a numbering reversal of the original Yardley Wood Road service!) as service 24. External links *National Express West Midlands *Network West Midlands area bus maps *Bus Routes of Solihull *Reference: Buses for Fun! blog - West Midlands 1993 'Other Photos' *BCT service 24 *BCT service 38 *WMPTE service 13 *WMPTE service 38 *WMPTE service 24 *WMT service 13 *WMT service 2 minibus *WMT service 12 *WM-YB service 2Y *TWM service 12 *NXWM service 2 *NXWM service 3 to Solihull *NXWM service 3A *NXWM service 3 to Acocks Green *NXWM service 3 Category:Bus routes in the West Midlands (county) 002